AML/CTF programs

Businesses' AML/CTF programs should take bribery and corruption into account.

The primary purpose of Part B of an AML/CTF program is to ensure the business knows its customers and understands its customers' financial activities.

Identifying the person who ultimately owns or controls customers reduces opportunities for the misuse of companies and other legal structures to conceal the proceeds of corruption and other illicit activities.

The additional customer due diligence requirements that commenced on 1 June 2014 are closely linked to Australia's efforts to combat corruption including:

determining the 'beneficial owner' of a customer (the ultimate individual who owns or controls the customer)

determining if the customer or beneficial owner is a politically exposed person (PEP)

considering the associated risks and the purpose and intent of the business relationship with a customer

undertaking reasonable measures to update information in relation to customers.

Bribery of foreign officials

Bribing or attempting to bribe a foreign public official is a serious crime carrying weighty penalties.

Bribery includes providing, causing, offering or promising to provide any advantage to another person where the advantage is not legitimately due.

The intention of the bribe must be to influence a foreign public official for the purpose of obtaining or retaining business or a business advantage that is not legitimately due to that person or company.

Bribery of a foreign public official can trigger:

bribery offences under Australian or international laws

criminal money laundering charges.

Penalties

Penalties for bribery offences reflect the criminal nature of bribery and the detrimental effects it has on Australian trade and reputation, and on international governance.

Foreign bribery is a significant burden on the global economy, with the World Bank estimating the annual cost of bribery to be USD$1 trillion.

The maximum penalty for an individual is 10 years imprisonment and/or a fine of 10,000 penalty units.

The maximum penalty for a body corporate can be a fine issued in penalty units or it can be a proportional penalty.

More information about bribery of a foreign public official, including penalties, is available on the Australian Government Attorney-General's Department (AGD) website. See: